Friday, January 22, 2010

Hotel Gritti Palace, Venice

Oh my gawd...this place is so beautiful~~~~overlooking Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute and the Grand Canal of cozit's within walking distance to the shopping strip and San Marco.due to our hectic schedule, we didn't even get a chance to sit by the canal and have a real good cuppa coffee :)))))))))))))))the hotel was built in 1525>_< does that scare u?

the beautiful red marble on the reception table was worn off and polished smooth over the years.I like the fact that it's so classical and elegant and this place just transformed us back into the 16th century.and decorated the walls were all the Venetian mirrorsOMG...so cantik!!!!I wanna bring home!!!!

the waiting area with a painting of Napoleon???yeah all the lights were made from Murano Glassesour room key....*wakakakakaka*so nice but then it's very heavy :PI like the pom pom at the end :))))the room was huge, we didn't expect it to be...coz land in Venice is like so scarceand yep...hotels in Venice are the most expensive of the lot.....so most tourists tend to stay mainland and travel to the island each day for visits.really special rugs *well we call them carpets here*and we got our own Venetian mirror in the room!!!!it was so old that it was stained with its age.....not to be used as a mirror but as a deco on the wall :Pthe powder room was decked in all sorts of marbleseverything in marble...were they dated back to 1525 too?even the taps were so antique!!!!!

Monkey reading the Journey of Marco Polo to Berr*he's on my left arm*

the only thing I hated bout hotels in Italy are the1) statues staring at u inside your own room2) paintings with piercing eyes staying back at u....quite eerie...but rest assured nothing happened :PI alwiz look fwd to favors provided by hotels during their turn down servicemost of the time, we get chocolates but this round we got chewy yummy jelly :)))))with weather forecast for the next dayweather can get as warm as 12 degrees and as low as 2 degreeswe were so lucky during our stay in Venice coz it only rained on the day we departedwe'll definitely come back to this half a century old hotelHotel Gritti Palace was the private residence of Doge of Venice *duke*Mr.Andrea Gritti

Our favorite city, and hotel, as well. Hey, "Liberated" our room key, too--same blue tassel! Just had to have a keepsake.

Our bellman looked JUST like Christopher Walken, he oblidged with a little softshoe, and a pic with us. This was a trip I took my girl (Italy; Rome, Florence, Portofino, Santa Margherite Ligere, Nice and Monaco, as well) basically first class all the way, while in med school (time precluded Orient Express side trip, though we did train everywhere.

Anyway, "Chris", after excusing himself to open the tip envelope and finding a VERY big week long one, for he and his guys, set us us up on a private-ish tour of Murano, Chianese glass works, and a great vaporetto or whatever those Mahogany looking boats are called, back to the train later, on him.

Was just a broke butt student, but spent the bones since I knew it would be a while (former airline workers, we), til we could travel like this again.

Venezia...can you imagine the colors (fresh, back then) of the buildings in the 1500's??